PESHAWAR, Aug 31: The people living on the outskirts of the city are in dire need of financial support as many are rendered homeless by the recent torrential rain.

“Almost 50 mud houses have collapsed and we have taken shelter in our relatives’ homes,” Mohammad Ilyas, a resident of Patwar Payan, told Dawn.

About a dozen villages here were badly affected by the recent heavy rain. The devastation caused by the downpour is of a large scale.

A majority of the people of this village are poor labourers. They have not gone to work for the last 15 days because they are mired in post-rain difficulties.

The affected families cannot afford to rebuild their houses. Even if some of them could manage this, they would be left with nothing much to provide for their families.

Power failure is frequent in these areas as the system of electricity supply has also gone haywire as a result of rain.

Only three days ago the City district council demanded of the provincial government to declare these localities “calamity-hit” areas. The much-needed relief has not been forthcoming in the quantum it should have.

“The city district government has provided food stuff to 1,500 families and also provided 1,000 tents to the affected families in different localities,” District Nazim Mohammad Azam Afridi told Dawn.

The residents of Patwar Payan complained that the Nazimeen and councillors came here to see the devastation who also promised help, but they were not seen again since then.

The misery is all the more severe for those having big families. Each affected family was given one tent, 20kg of flour, 2kg of ghee and 4kg of pulses. This rationing fell much short of big families’ needs.

The residents of Patwar village said an overflowing rain-water channel near the locality razed the mud houses to the ground.

“The huge damage could have been averted had there been a wider canal to allow passage to flood water,” said Arifullah, a resident of the locality, who was busy rebuilding his mud house.

He added that the waste of the marble factories located nearby found its way into the water channel, which often choked it and caused its overflowing.

The other worst-hit localities are Sufaid Sang, Sara Sang, Muthra, Mustajab Gheri and Kula Zai Chowk. Their condition is by no means dissimilar. In some areas, the corn and sugarcane crops have been severely damaged.

The provincial government should declare these localities calamity-hit areas, and arrange relief for the rain-affected.